About the incentive

The Unlocking Heritage Travel Subsidy offers support to RAM funded NSW primary schools that have an FOEI score of +100, to ensure that your students have the unique opportunity to extend their learning beyond the classroom in some of our state’s most significant heritage sites.

The travel subsidy contributes up to $20 per student towards the cost of transport to attend a selection of Stage 1, 2 and 3 programs linked to the NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum and led by highly trained staff.

The results so far

20,517 students from 192 NSW primary schools have attended an excursion with the assistance of the travel subsidy, with another 2,000 students still to go in term 4 this year.

Out of these schools, 76 (40%) were from NSW rural schools visiting both Sydney and regional heritage sites. We are looking forward to continuing the Unlocking Heritage Travel Subsidy for another 4,500 students in terms 1 and 2, 2018.

The primary schools based in Sydney were predominantly located in the western and south western suburbs,all with high populations of students from refugee, multicultural and indigenous backgrounds. What has been revealed in the applications and evaluations is how very few of these children have visited the city or have had the opportunity to engage with the cultural and heritage experiences that many other students take for granted.

Our students don’t often get the opportunity to explore the world outside their local area. This opportunity will provide them a learning experience that will be remembered for life, which will promote our vision of creating learners for life.

The travel subsidy has allowed them to engage in education programs that not only provide ‘equity in education’ but also a sense of belonging through an ‘appreciation of our shared history’.

To visit a living museum would offer our students an opportunity to learn about Australian history. It will support them to develop an understanding of the Australian identity and the significant historical events that have contributed to it.

In terms of meeting educational outcomes, the feedback has been just as positive with over 90% of teachers surveyed indicating that the experiences offered through the Unlocking Heritage Travel Subsidy provided high quality learning experiences that linked strongly with their classroom teaching.

Teachers have also provided positive feedback about the level of engagement and appropriate delivery of relevant information for their students.

Students were actively involved and the program catered for a variety of learning styles - learning through activities was extremely effective.

The program was directly aligned to what we have been studying in class. The delivery staff ensured this was the case.

We did not anticipate the students’ level of engagement, very high.

So what did the students think?

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Historic Houses Trust of NSW, incorporating Sydney Living Museums, cares for significant historic places, buildings, landscapes and collections. It is a statutory authority of, and principally funded by, the New South Wales Government.